27

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, PRODUCTS FROM

DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND CULTURAL
BACKGROUNDS IN THE COSMETIC
INDUSTRY: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Raffaele Cecere
University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy

Francesco Izzo
University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy

Michele Terraferma
University of Naples Parthenope, Italy

Received: December 14, 2021 Accepted: March 2, 2022 Online Published: March 20, 2022

Abstract

This article explores the research domain of the impact of Country of Origin (COO) in the
cosmetics industry in relation to products from different countries and cultural
backgrounds. This study aims to provide a relevant and comprehensive organization of the
research around this topic, offering an original, reliable and practically useful resource.
In this way, a systematic literature review was conducted. Twenty documents published
between 1997 and 2020 were analyzed and classified into three research themes.
Specifically, the three themes are: COO and purchase behaviour related to cosmetic
products (Theme A), COO and country perception in relation to cosmetic products (Theme
B), COO and marketing strategies for cosmetics companies (Theme C). For each of the
themes, emerging content and the potential for future research was highlighted. The
findings of this paper have value not only for Cross-Cultural Management and Marketing
scholars, but also for managers of cosmetics companies who plan to use the Country of
Origin and the Country Image to communicate the company brand. The analysis is original
and shows that this is an under-researched topic that offers important insights for future
research and implications for managers who intend to consider the COO in business and
marketing strategies.

Keywords: Country of origin; Country image; Culture; Countries; Cross-cultural

management.

International Journal of Economic Behavior, vol. 12 n. 1, 2022, 27-44.

https://doi.org/ 10.14276/2285-0430.3194
28

1. Introduction
The Country of origin (COO) has its roots at the end of the First World War, with a different
meaning than the one that today is part of our common imagination: the "Made in" label
was in fact compulsorily placed on products coming from defeated countries, such as
Germany, to mark them as products to be avoided (Munjal, 2014). The concept of COO
was studies for the first time in economic terms since 1965, when Schooler (1965)
empirically demonstrated that identical products were perceived differently in relation to
their country of origin. Nowadays, in an increasingly connected and globalized world
where consumers can purchase products from all over the globe, the COO has significant
importance. In particular, it represents not only the image, reputation and stereotypes that
businessmen and consumers attribute to the products of a given country (Nagashima,
1970), but also the set of beliefs that consumers have about the countries themselves
(Strutton et al., 1995; Roth & Romeo, 1992; Kotler & Gertner, 2002). In addition, the COO
is considered as an extrinsic feature along with the brand and therefore can act as an
additional assurance during the purchase process of a product with which one is unfamiliar
(Josiassen & Harzing, 2008).
This phenomenon, which is triggered by the importance of the COO, is also classified
as the halo effect (Han, 1989). On the other hand, as consumers become more familiar with
a country's products, the country image may become a construct that summarizes
consumers' beliefs about product attributes, which inevitably affects their attitudes towards
the brands associated with those products (Han, 1989). However, the phenomenon related
to COO involves very often some categories of products and not all products from the same
country. For example, Japanese wine producers have a harder time gaining credibility in
the market than camera and television manufacturers from the same country. Similarly,
German cars, sporting goods and computers designed in the United States (Hamzaoui &
Merunka, 2006) are perceived positively by consumers compared to others from other
countries. In this vein, the purchasing process of consumers turns out to be influenced by
country-product associations that are in turn the result of the information that consumers
have about the country of origin, as in the case of shoes made in Italy and perfumes made
in France (Kalicharan, 2014).
Moreover, with regard to Italian products, those related to the agri-food, clothing and
home furnishings industries are perceived worldwide as synonymous with quality linked
to the high creative content of the industrial process, which validates the term "Italian
style". In this regard, De Nisco and Mainolfi (2016) showed that foreign perception of Italy
and Italian products is linked to the image of the cultural heritage of the Italian country
brand and has a significant interaction with some cultural attributes (such as culinary
tradition, aesthetics and art) and with the main product categories of the so-called Italian
‘Bello e Ben Fatto’ (such as food, leather goods, design and home furnishings). In addition,
Italian excellence in some industries has generated the phenomenon of ‘Italian Sounding’
(Francioni & Albanesi, 2017), which consists in the use of words (i.e. recipe names and
person's names and surnames) and images (i.e. the flag or geographical references such as
Italian locations or monuments) evocative of Italy, in order to promote and market products
that are actually not Made in Italy. Francioni and Albanesi (2017) demonstrated with a
sample of German consumers, that Italian sounding damages the perception of ‘Made in
Italy’, since very often consumers do not pay much attention to the label during purchase.
Some scholars (Maheswaran, 1994; Gürhan-Canli & Maheswaran, 2000) have
examined the COO phenomenon according to its cognitive aspect, evaluating the
 29

conditions under which consumers are more likely to use COO in their decision-making
process. In these cases, it was found that when consumers are faced with choosing a
product, they very often tend to minimize the effort to process information (Maheswaran,
1994) and for this reason they use COO as a heuristic to quickly make a judgment and
evaluate a product based on the degree of certainty (or uncertainty) they have regarding the
quality of the product (Maheswaran, 1994; Gürhan-Canli & Maheswaran, 2000). On the
other hand, other scholars (Klein et al., 1998; Chen et al., 2014; Septianto et al., 2020) have
analysed COO according to the emotional aspect. For example, Klein and colleagues
(1998) showed that Chinese consumers are unlikely to purchase Japanese products because
of the memory of Japanese occupation on their territory. From an emotional perspective, it
follows that the positive emotions an individual has about a country will affect a product
from that country in a positive way, and conversely, negative emotions will affect a product
from that country in a negative way (Chen et al., 2014). However, contrary to this claim,
Septianto and colleagues (2020) showed that in cases where the COO has a less favourable
image, emotions have a greater influence on consumer purchase behaviour, highlighting
the moderating effect of the COO in matching country and product-related emotions.
In light of these elements, this paper aims to study the importance of the concept of
COO related to cosmetic products and understand how its perception changes not only
depending on the cultural context in which the study takes place, but also in relation to the
COO of the products under consideration. Therefore, a review of all existing literature
related to studies that have linked the concept of COOs to cosmetic products and have
addressed the topic from an economic and cross-cultural perspective was conducted.
Moreover, in the literature there was no review of the literature related to COO dedicated
to the cosmetics sector, therefore the originality of this study goes to fill this gap by
analysing the phenomenon from a cross-cultural point of view. The literature review
follows a fully systematic and replicable process involving research, inductive analysis,
and organization of previous studies based on recurring findings and cultural contexts of
reference.
Thus, the following research question guides the study:

RQ. How has the impact of COO in the cosmetics industry been studied in relation
to products from different countries and cultural backgrounds?

Since COO is often considered a synonym for Country Image (CI) (Yagci, 2001), they
are also considered in this review in this way, although they are actually mean different
things. Effectively, CI represents the set of descriptive, inferential, and informational
beliefs that people have about a particular country (Martin & Eroglu, 1993) and this occurs
in relation to mental representations of people, products, culture, and national symbols
(Verlegh & Steenkamp, 1999), combined with other factors such as economic and political
maturity, historical events and relationships, technological virtuosity (Bannister &
Saunders, 1978), and environmental issues (Allred et al., 2000). This paper inventories the
entire domain of COO related to cosmetics to provide comprehensive, relevant, and
organized research support. Several studies were reviewed, inductively synthesized, and
classified in relation to their findings and cultural reference contexts, while also attempting
to identify major research themes. Finally, this study adopts a cross cultural approach in
order to open a discussion regarding the phenomena, issues, inconsistencies and
intermediate debates on which new research can be conducted, facilitating the sharing and
30

reusing of meaningful information in relation to different cultural contexts. The next part
of the study presents the research method including its scope and analytical procedures.
This is followed by our findings, including observations of the literature and areas for
future investigation. This leads to a more general discussion and conclusions of the work
combined with a future research agenda.

2. Methodology
To ensure a comprehensive state of the art about the concept of country of origin in the
cosmetics industry and to ensure replicability for future research, the process of systematic
literature review was followed. In fact, systematic literature reviews aim to provide a
reliable and scientific overview of ongoing research on a specific topic and provide
guidance for future research (Petticrew & Roberts, 2008). Furthermore, the purpose of
systematic literature reviews is to identify, evaluate, and synthesize all relevant studies
using a transparent and replicable process to answer a particular research question
(Tranfield et al., 2003). To comply with principles such as transparency, clarity, focus,
accessibility, and synthesis, a search protocol was followed and based on it, the criteria for
searching, including, and excluding papers were established.
The first step of the review was to define a search protocol compliant with the research
aim to review articles dealing with the impact of COO in the cosmetics industry in relation
to products from different countries and cultural contexts. Eligible studies for this review
could refer to both the concept of COO and CI related to cosmetic products in different
cultural contexts from both an economic and cross-cultural perspective. During the search,
the terminology Country of origin image (COI) also emerged: it too was considered
suitable for our review. Thus, the first inclusion criterion was to find and analyze studies
in the literature that linked the concept of COO (or CI and equivalent terminologies) to
cosmetic products in different cultural contexts from both an economic and cross-cultural
perspective. In addition, the second inclusion criterion required that the research had been
open to collect both empirical studies, conceptual studies, and reviews. In addition, a third
inclusion criterion was that articles published in peer-reviewed journals were included in a
priority way because these articles are considered more reliable due to the double-blind
review process they undergo before being published (Podsakoff et al. 2005). Moreover, a
fourth inclusion criterion, stated that both high-impact and low-impact journals were
considered, as long as the articles belonging to them met the other inclusion criteria.
Finally, under the fifth inclusion criterion, books, book chapters, and working papers were
considered and allowed as exceptions if they were strongly in line with the other inclusion
criteria. In contrast, papers that did not deal with the concept of COO, or CI, related to
cosmetic products in different cultural contexts according to perspectives other than
economic and cross-cultural were excluded. Furthermore, papers that did not consider
COO and CI as the central topic of the work were also excluded. Finally, periodicals,
conference proceedings were also excluded. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are also
provided in the table below (Table 1). Subsequently, the research took place in the second
step. Specifically, the search for papers was done by first entering the keywords (Table 1)
into the EBSCO, Scopus and Google Scholar search engines without limiting the search to
a specific time period and by searching through the titles and abstracts of the content. In
addition, a manual search for relevant articles was conducted through the reference lists of
relevant articles found in previous steps. Moreover, the same keywords were manually
 31

entered on the journal search engines in order to identify additional studies that might have
escaped the automatic search of the previously mentioned databases. Finally, 20 papers (19
from peer-reviewed journals and one book chapter) were identified for inclusion in the final
database for our analysis.

Table 1 – Methodological procedures for search, selection, inclusion and exclusion

Inclusion criteria
1. Papers that linked the concept of COO (or CI and equivalent
terminologies) to cosmetic products in different cultural contexts
from both an economic and cross-cultural perspective;
2. Empirical AND conceptual AND review;
3. Peer-reviewed journal articles preferentially;
4. Both high-impact journals and lower-impact journals;
5. Exceptions for books, book chapters and working papers if they
were strongly in line with the other inclusion criteria.

Exclusion Criteria 1. Papers that did not consider COO as a central topic of the paper;
2. Periodicals and conference proceedings.

Research Method - Stage I
1. Admission criteria for general keyword search using Scopus,
EBSCO, and Google Scholar;
2. Initial focus on: a) citation and abstract, and b) title.
3. Key words:
• Country of Origin and cosmetic
• Country Image and cosmetic
• Country of Origin and perfume
• Country Image and perfume
• Country of Origin and skincare
• Country Image and skincare

Search method - Stage II
1. Manual search of relevant articles through the reference lists of
relevant articles found in the previous stages;
2. Manual search in search engines of the journals of the studies
previously identified;
1. Include and evaluate articles deemed suitable for the search
criteria.

Final sample for analysis n= 20 (nineteen papers from peer-reviewed journals and one book
chapter)
Source: Author’s elaboration

3. Results
Subsequently, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet was used for content coding and comparison.
In addition, the methodology of the studies, the samples used for the research, and the
countries in which the studies were conducted, the country of origin, or the reference image
country were identified. Next, the various contributions were analyzed by identifying not
only the value of culture in the various reference contexts in which they take place, but also
the main research themes.
32

An initial analysis of the existing literature shows that the scope of the research ranges
from 1997 to 2020. In terms of the methodology adopted, eighteen of them are quantitative
studies and only three are qualitative. Finally, three research themes were identified and
are reported below. They are: COO and purchasing behavior related to cosmetic products,
COO and country perception related to cosmetic products, COO and marketing strategies
for cosmetics companies. This information is summarized in Table 2.

Table 2 – Summary table of studies clustered by theme

Theme A: COO, CI and purchase of cosmetic products
Country of
Study Country of origin Sample Methodology
study
Quantitative. Structured
questionnaires. One-way ANOVA,
Zbib et al., 300 Lebanese
Lebanon France and China multinomial logistic regression, single
2021 female consumers
and multiple regression analysis and
chi-square tests
150 female
Bangi
consumers from Quantitative. Self-administered
Ishak et al., Selangor
Not specified four questionnaire, descriptive, t-test and
2019 (Malaysia
higher education correlation analyses
)
institutions
Quantitative. Mean, median, standard
deviation and other
Descriptive statistics. Exploratory
Moslehpour 437 Taiwanese Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory
Taiwan Korea
et al., 2017 people Factor Analysis (CFA), Cronbach's
Alpha, Kaiser-Meyet-Olkin (KMO),
Bartlett‟s test measure, Structural
Equation Modeling (SEM)
Quantitative. Online surveys. Principal
Tjoe and 227 Indonesian
Indonesia Korea component analysis (PCA), multiple
Kim, 2016 consumers
regression and process analysis
Pantene (KSA,
France and
USA), Sunsilk
Zbib et al., (Egypt, Turkey 332 consumers of Quantitative. Demographic variables;
Lebanon
2010 and France), shampoo one-way ANOVA tests
Palmolive
(Lebanon, USA
and France)
Poland and Quantitative. Univariate analysis of
Marcoux et 265 Polish
Poland Western the scores of preference and stepwise
al., 1997 university students
Countries multiple regression analysis.
227 students from Quantitative. Exploratory Factor
Azuizkulov
Malaysia Not specified Universiti Utara Analysis, Correlation Analysis,
, 2013
Malaysia Regression Analysis
Ralph Lauren Quantitative. Questionnaire. 1-5 Likert
Montanari (USA), Chanel scale, Descriptive analysis, Kruskal-
Brazil 329 students
et al., 2018 (France), Hugo Wallis tests, non-parametric tests
Boss (Germany) (Mann-Whitney test)
Quantitative. Paper-based
Hsu et al., questionnaire, Structural equation
Taiwan Not specified 300 respondents
2017 modelling, hierarchical moderated
regression
 33

491 consumers
Jin et al., USA and Quantitative. Structural equation
Korea ages 20 and
2020 China modeling
older
USA,
Jin et al., France, 900 consumers Quantitative. Multiple regression
Korea
2019 China, aged 20 or older analyses.
Vietnam
Jin et al., USA and 250 consumers Quantitative. Structural equation
Korea
2019 China ages 20 and older modeling
Beijing
Quantitative. Survey, Descriptive
Xiao et al., and
Korea 255 customers statistics, Hierarchical regression
2016 Shanghai
analysis
(China)
Rezvani et Quantitative. Survey, Descriptive data
Malaysia Malaysia 196 customers
al., 2013 analysis
Theme B: COO, CI and country perceptions
Country of
Study Country of origin Sample Methodology
study
Finland, France,
Germany, Israel,
Italy, Norway,
Poland, Spain, Web Panel of 1012
Baran, 2018 Poland Quantitative. Descriptive statistics.
Sweden, respondents
Switzerland,
United Kingdom,
United States
Pilelienèa Lithuania, Italy,
and France,
Quantitative. Questionnaire, 1-7 Likert
Šontaitè- Lithuania Germany, 1262 respondents
scale, Mean, N, Standard deviation
Petkevičien Poland, Russia,
èb, 2014 China
Italy, Australia,
Cheah et 200 undergraduate
Australia South Korea and Quantitative. Survey, ANOVA tests
al., 2020 business students
China
Theme C: COO, CI and marketing strategies for cosmetic companies
Country of
Study Country of origin Sample Methodology
study
Two companies: Qualitative. Multiple case
Natura Cosméticos
Brazil and Brazil (Brazil domestic
Suter et al,
Brazil production with company) vs study method, semi-structured
2018
France origin L'Occitane au interviews
Brésil (France-
owned)
Sutter et al., Natura Cosméticos Qualitative. Case study analysis, semi-
Brazil Brazil
2015 S.A. structured interviews
7 professionals
France, Usa, from French
Rebufet et Not Qualitative. Multiple case study
China, Panama, cosmetics
al., 2015 specified method, semi-structured interviews
Spain companiesoperatin
g internationally
Source: Authors’ elaboration
34

3.1 Theme A: COO and purchase behaviour related to cosmetic products

The first theme includes studies that have used COO (or CI) to explain consumer purchase
behaviour. In particular, Zbib and colleagues (2021), with a sample of 300 Lebanese
women, showed that taking into account cosmetic products from France and China, the
level of involvement that female consumers have towards a given product constitutes an
exogenous variable that influences the level of importance of COO in the purchase of
cosmetics and in particular skin care products.
They also showed that for products from France, COO information search and change
in the perception after trying the product are correlated due to the presence of a halo effect
related to French products. Furthermore, they found that COO information search and
change in the perception are not correlated when it comes to Chinese products since
Lebanese consumers did not change their perception towards the products after discovering
their Chinese origin (Zbib et al., 2021).
However, for low involvement product categories such as shampoo, it has been shown
that country of origin is not one of the key attributes influencing Lebanese consumer choice
(Zbib et al., 2021). This was demonstrated in Lebanon with a sample of 332 shampoo
consumers from brands and countries of origin such as Pantene (KSA, France and USA),
Sunsilk (Egypt, Turkey and France) and Palmolive (Lebanon, USA and France) (Zbib et
al., 2010). Furthermore, taking as reference companies and their countries of origin such
as Chanel and France, Hugo Boss and Germany and Ralph Lauren and USA, it was shown
that, for a sample of 329 Brazilian students, country of origin has little importance in the
purchase of luxury branded perfumes. In this case, price and brand had been considered the
factors that most influence the choice (Montanari et al., 2018). In particular, the study
showed that only for Chanel the value of country of origin was higher, probably because
the brand name communicates the country of origin (Montanari et al., 2018). Furthermore,
Hsu and colleagues (2017) demonstrated with a sample of 300 respondents in Taiwan, that
perceptions of COO moderate the links between attitude, subjective norm, perceived
behavioural control and purchase intention of green skincare products.
Specifically, the relationship between the variables appears to be stronger at high
levels of COO perception and weaker at low levels of COO perception (Hsu et al., 2017).
In addition, Ishak and colleagues (2019), on a sample of 150 Malaysian high school
women, showed that purchasing cosmetic products is part of the ‘limited decision-making
process’ and specifically, in the purchasing process, country of origin obtained a mean
value of 3.91 on a Likert scale 1-7 (Ishak et al., 2019).
Moreover, also in Malaysia, with a sample of 227 university students, it was shown
that not only country of origin is strongly correlated with both purchase behaviour and
brand reputation, but also has a positive influence on brand loyalty when referring to
cosmetic products (Azuizkulov, 2013). Moreover, Tjoe and Kim (2016), in their study
made a distinction between Country of Origin Image and Country Image, considering the
former as the country of manufacturer's products or brand is associated with its home
country (Samiee, 1994) and the latter as the set of people's beliefs, images, ideas and
impressions about a certain country (Kotler et al., 2002). In particular, they demonstrated,
with a sample of 227 respondents, that Country of Origin Image (and not Country Image)
significantly influenced consumers' purchase intention towards Korean products in
Indonesia.
Moreover, this study also juxtaposes the concept of COO with that of ethnocentrism,
as did Marcoux and colleagues (1997) who, with a sample of 265 Polish university
 35

students, showed that patriotism is a dimension of ethnocentrism that leads consumers to

prefer Polish products, while preference toward Western products is related to the
demonstration of social status.
In addition, another study conducted in Malaysia with a sample of 196 consumers
showed that patriotism has a strong influence on Malaysian consumers' intention to
purchase cosmetic products made in Malaysia (Rezvani et al., 2013). Moreover,
Moslehpour and colleagues (2017), by analyzing the key factors influencing the repurchase
intention of Korean cosmetic products by 437 Taiwanese consumers, showed that COO
significantly influences both word-of-mouth and product repurchase behaviour. In
addition, also regarding Korean products, using a sample of 491 American and Chinese
consumers aged 20 and older, Jin and colleagues (2020) showed that product-specific
country image, also referred to as micro country image had a positive influence on quality
ratings of Korean cosmetics in contrast to overall country image (macro country image)
and prototypical brand image (e.g. Samsung). However, the same authors (Jin et al., 2019)
examined the impact of Korea's macro and micro image and the level of materialism of
global consumers on the quality evaluation of Korean cosmetics, a sample of 900
consumers aged 20 or older from the USA, France, China, and Vietnam.
They showed that only in the USA and France was the effect of macro and micro
country image on quality evaluation significant, while the impact of micro country image
was strong in all four countries. Furthermore, the same authors (Jin et al., 2019) showed
with a sample of 250 consumers ages 20 and older, that for the evaluation of the quality of
cosmetic products, the positive impact of the macro country image is not valuable, while
the pathway related to the cultural phenomenon of the Korean Wave is significant.
Also related to knowledge spillovers, Xiao and colleagues (2016), with a sample of
255 Chinese consumers, stated that cinema, theater and the internet represent sources that
have increased knowledge regarding Korean cosmetics. They also verified that the general
CI and general product CI of Korea have a positive influence on the Electronic Word-of-
Mouth (e-WOM) and purchase intention of Korean cosmetics (Xiao et al., 2016). From
these studies, we can see that the COO in some cultural contexts and for some product
categories is particularly important in relation to consumer purchasing behaviour, while in
others its influence is less. In particular, we notice that cosmetics made in France and Korea
are those which have the greatest influence on the purchasing process of consumers in
Lebanon, China and Taiwan.
From a cultural point of view, this phenomenon can be traced back to the concept of
Mianzi (literally, face) which represents one of the main personality characteristics of the
Chinese people and other East Asian peoples (Yang, 1994; Wong & Ahuvia, 1998).
According to this cultural characteristic, East Asians tend to own and purchase goods that
allow them to achieve a certain social status on which they base their prestige (Yang, 1994),
build their reputation (Wong & Ahuvia, 1998), and the way they are accepted by others
(Hwang, 1987) by publicly displaying their wealth and willingness to be fashionable.
Moreover, particularly for China, these reasons meet explanations in its cultural evolution
that started after the death of Mao Tse Tung and the historic entry into the global economy
in 1978, which had consequences on the consumption of products and emulation of foreign
lifestyles by the Chinese people.
Foreign brands carry a symbolic meaning of modernity and prestige associated with
modern and worldly lifestyles (Zhou & Hui, 2003) that meet the desire, particularly of
Chinese women, to give birth to the long-suppressed desire to wear fashionable clothes and
36

cosmetics (Barnes, 2009; Hopkins, 2007). Moreover, the phenomenon of ethnocentrism

pushes consumers to prefer products from their own country as in the case of Poland,
where, from a cultural perspective, national pride and entity influence people's attitudes
and consumer purchasing behaviour (Huddleston et al., 2001; Kubacki & Skinner, 2006;
Siemieniako et al., 2011).
However, for both product categories with less involvement, such as shampoo, and
some perfumes, country of origin is not one of the key attributes that influence consumer
choice in some cultural contexts such as Lebanon and Brazil, confirming that from a
cultural perspective, country of origin takes on different meanings in relation to the
product, cultural context, and country appeal. Finally, related to this result, in this theme
we can see that culture plays an important role in consumer preferences and purchase
process in different countries.

3.2 Theme B: COO and country perception in relation to cosmetic products

The second theme encompasses studies that have linked COO concepts to consumers'
perceptions of a given country. A study by Baran (2018) conducted in Poland and based
on a web panel of 1012 Polish internet users, showed that more than 30% respondents when
thinking about features such as safety of using and low price of a cosmetic product refer to
Poland. When they refer to the naturalness of cosmetic products, they refer not only to
Poland, but also to Finland. When instead they think of prestige, they associate this
characteristic with cosmetic products from France. They also associate France with high
prices, along with the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the USA. However, with smaller
percentages, high quality of ingredients (24.5%) and effectiveness (24.9%) are associated
with Germany, pleasure of using (18.6%) with France, mediocrity (27.7%) with Israel and
innovativeness (18.0%) with United States of America (Baran, 2018). In addition, another
study conducted in Lithuania with a sample of 1262 cosmetic consumers identified three
groups of country-of-origin based on their attractiveness. Specifically, France and
Germany were classified as attractive country-of-origin, Italy and Lithuania as neutral
country-of-origin and finally Russia, Poland and China as unattractive country-of-origin
(Pilelienèa et al, 2014).
Finally, Cheah and colleagues (2020), with a sample of 200 undergraduate business
students in a large university in Australia, showed that regarding Australian, Italian,
Korean, and Chinese-branded perfumes, no country-of-origin of these perfumes is a means
of achieving status. However, among the various perfumes, Australian perfumes have been
considered reliable and belonging to the emerging markets of their industry (Cheah et al.,
2020).
Regarding this second theme, we can note that with regard to the perceptions of the
various countries, French origin has its attractiveness in the cosmetic industry. Moreover,
a form of patriotism also emerges in studies belonging to this second theme when we
consider that Polish consumers perceive cosmetics from Poland as safe to use and when
Australian consumers consider perfumes made in Australia as reliable and up-to-date.
From a cultural point of view, regarding the ethnocentrism of Polish consumers the
same reflections indicated in the previous theme are valid, while that found in Australian
consumers confirms the results of previous studies in which it is shown that they tend to
purchase local products with high frequency, especially if they belong to categories of high
symbolic impact, as cosmetics are (Strizhakova & Coulter, 2015).
 37

3.3 Theme C: COO and marketing strategies for cosmetic companies

The third theme refers to the marketing strategies adopted across firms to show the COO.
In particular, a study conducted in Brazil with a sample of two companies, a Brazil
domestic company (Natura Cosméticos) and a France-owned company (L'Occitane au
Brésil) identified six tools that companies can use to communicate brand values using the
concept of country image associated with the country of origin (Suter et al., 2018).
Specifically, the six tools refer to the country's natural resource properties, cultural
resources (e.g., related to lifestyles), employee training on the importance of the Country
Image for the brand, textual elements referring to the country (such as language and typical
expressions), visual elements (e.g., images of the country, flag, landscapes and typical
symbols, use of the country's name on staff uniforms) and sensory experiences (e.g.
listening to country music on the website and in stores, in-store scents and essences, and
packaging that evokes the country by touch).
Another study refers to the country-of-origin image using the Brazilian company
Natura Cosméticos as a sample as well (Sutter et al., 2015). The study shows that the
company leverages the country-of-origin image when implementing its international
differentiation strategy.
Population, economy and politics, sports and arts, nature and lifestyle are the five
elements that represent Brazil's image and Natura makes use of different nuances. In
particular, the company chooses to base its strategy on themes related to nature,
relationships and the friendliness of the country and the Brazilian people while avoiding
stereotypes such as soccer, sensuality, samba and the beach (Sutter et al., 2015). Finally, a
further study with a sample of seven professionals representing French cosmetics
companies that operate internationally (France, USA, China, Panama and Spain), showed
that the country of origin is communicated through labels, symbols, commercial discourse
and strategies that emphasize the French origin of the products, which represents a real
added value (Rebufet et al., 2015).
In addition, the study points out that communication based on these elements is more
widely used by small and medium-sized businesses than larger ones. This is because small
and medium-sized companies use logos that contain graphic elements evoking France (for
example, a stylized Eiffel Tower) more freely than larger companies with an international
character, which are often limited to displaying only a few elements such as the name of
the city under the brand name (Rebufet et al., 2015). From this third theme it emerges that
COO communication represents a valid item in the marketing strategies not only of large
multinational companies, but also of small companies that want to open up paths in
international markets.

4. Conclusions
This study aims to provide a comprehensive view regarding the impact of COO in the
cosmetics industry in relation to products from different countries and cultural contexts
through a systematic literature review. We can see that it is a topic not very studied, but for
our analysis twenty studies were collected and classified into three themes: COO and
purchase behavior related to cosmetic products (Theme A), COO and country perception
in relation to cosmetic products (Theme B), COO and marketing strategies for cosmetics
companies(Theme C).
38

Among the main results, it emerges that COO has a higher value when attributed to
cosmetic products with higher emotional value, such as perfumes (Kalicharan, 2014;
Montanari et al., 2018; Cheah et al., 2020), and a lower value for cosmetic products with
lower emotional value, such as shampoo (Zbib et al., 2010). Furthermore, we can see that
cosmetic products from France and Korea have great appeal in many cultural contexts and
that in some cultures patriotism often leads consumers to prefer products from their own
country (as in Poland).
This means that the COO is linked to the culture of a people, its history and its
traditions that affect the purchasing behaviour of consumers. As a matter of fact, consumers
choose the products they want both on the basis of the product's characteristics, such as
quality and price, and on the basis of its symbolic value. The former is the case of Polish
consumers who base their purchases more on the perceived quality than on the origin of
the product. However, the strong ethnocentrism belonging to their culture pushes them
towards quality products made in their country (Huddleston et al., 2001).
The second is the case of Chinese and other East Asian consumers, who tend to prefer
foreign products with a strong symbolic value, such as French brand cosmetics, in order to
feel more integrated into society (Wong & Ahuvia, 1998). It also emerges that COO
communication is a viable marketing strategy for companies from countries with strong
cosmetic traditions.
Since the results of this study show how culture influences consumption choices in
relation to the origin of products, they are of value not only to scholars of Cross-Cultural
Management and Marketing, but also to managers of cosmetics companieswho intend to
use the country of origin and the image of the country to communicate the company brand.
However, our review also has limitations. First, this study is limited to analyzing peer-
reviewed journal articles in a preferential manner, with the exception of only one book
chapter that is strongly aligned with other research criteria. In addition, all selected studies
were in English.
Therefore, it would be interesting for other authors to conduct a review including other
studies, for example submitted to conferences and written in languages other than English.
However, although our study is based on a replicable research protocol it is appropriate for
other researchers to evaluate a random sample of the coded articles to verify their validity
(Ryan & Bernard, 2003).
Despite these limitations, the originality of this study fills a gap in the literature related
to COO and the cosmetics industry by also analyzing the phenomenon integrating a cross
cultural perspective. In addition, our study points to multiple opportunities for future
research without claiming to be exhaustive. Regarding theme A, for further future studies
it would be interesting to study the influence of patriotism in other cultural contexts such
as Italy (or other Western European countries) and also how the ‘Made in’ influences the
purchasing process of foreign consumers in relation to cosmetic products.
Further quantitative studies could consider the frequency and willingness to purchase
products from one's home country by measuring patriotism through specific variables and
questionnaires (Schatz et al., 1999; Davidov, 2009). In this way, patriotism could be used
as a mediator between the perception of COO and the actual purchase of products by the
end consumer.
On the other hand, with regard to theme B, it would be interesting to discover how,
contrary to the studies examined, French consumers perceive cosmetic products from other
countries. In this case, both qualitative studies could help to explore the phenomenon more,
 39

and quantitative studies could confirm hypotheses by using the COO of cosmetic products
as a moderator or mediator for some psychological variables, such as materialism (Richins
& Dawson, 1992; Griffin et al., 2004; Kilbourne et al., 2005) and face (Ho, 1976; Hwang,
1987; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Liao & Wang, 2009). Studies of this kind could play on
the role of the perception of a given country (such as France for its elegance and Italy for
its ‘Italian style’) plays when considering a given product category, cosmetics in our case,
and purchase choices.
Moreover, regarding theme C, it would be interesting to conduct a qualitative study
both for a Korean company and for SMEs in other countries where small entrepreneurship
is strongly present, such as Italy. Furthermore, it would be interesting to conduct
quantitative studies on samples of multiple companies to build theoretical models related
to COO communication in different countries. These theoretical models could contain
objective variables to explain different marketing strategies related to COO, such as
storytelling and sales staff expertise in the process of communicating and selling products
within stores.
Finally, further studies could investigate the misuse of the COO, as in the case of
‘Italian Sounding’ (Francioni & Albanesi, 2017) associated with cosmetic products. In this
way, the negative effect it might have in the long term with respect to the perception of
certain products in both richer and poorer countries or, simply in different cultural contexts
could be assessed. In fact, studies of this kind could not only give further explanations to
the ethical problems related to this unfair phenomenon, but also shed light on the cultural
differences in different countries.
In addition, further studies could address the emotional component related to COO
(Septianto et al., 2020) by analyzing the moderating effect of COO in situations where
consumer purchasing behaviour is analyzed with reference to cosmetics from high and low
appeal countries. Finally, from a practical point of view, this study also offers important
insights for managers of cosmetics companieswho want to develop international trade by
using the COO as a tool on which to base a communication strategy, both on the side of
promotion and sales in their physical stores. In this vein, an integrated marketing strategy
could be useful to effectively communicate the COO through symbols that remind the
culture of the specific country. Nevertheless, it is advisable to communicate the elements
of the COO in a dynamic and proactive way, in line with the demands of new markets.
Very often, companies tend to use COO-related artifacts in a passive manner, for
example by using 'made in' lettering and images such as the flag. Although these elements
have the ability to inform about the origin of the product, they have low informational
power towards customers in young and dynamic markets (Checchinato et al., 2013). For
companies engaged in selling products in new foreign markets that want to leverage the
COO, it is important to actively explain the value and characteristics of their country. In
this sense, when basing communication on the COO, brand image should not be neglected,
but a type of communication capable of integrating both aspects should be implemented.
In addition, the tool of storytelling could help to proactively communicate the value of the
COO by linking it to products and the brand.
Furthermore, it would be important to leverage the store windows, the internal
environment of the stores and the sales staff, which play an important role in attracting
consumers to come in and be accompanied in their shopping experience. In this sense,
greater involvement of sales staff in telling the product story based on the COO's assurances
and, at the same time, the brand would help to entertain the customer and positively
40

influence the buying behaviour. Moreover, the tool of storytelling could help to proactively
communicate the value of the COO by linking it to products and the brand. Furthermore,
it would be important to leverage the store windows, the internal environment of the stores
and the sales staff, which play an important role in attracting consumers to come in and be
accompanied in their shopping experience. In this sense, greater involvement of sales staff
in telling the product story based on the COO's assurances and, at the same time, the brand
would help to entertain the customer and positively influence his or her buying behaviour.
In light of the above and further linking practice with theory, future studies could use
high-appeal cosmetic stores, such as those selling French products, in various cultural
contexts (e.g., Asian or European) as a research sample. In doing so, they could further
confirm the best practices discussed in this paper and enrich the literature with new
evidence.

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